Touchscreen interfaces of mobile devices, such as phones, e-readers, tablet computers, etc., commonly implement touch interactivity by adding a system of infrared light emitters and receivers around a display. The emitters and detectors are incorporated in a bezel of the device that either creates an infrared field just above the surface of the display or creates an infrared field in a top substrate of the display. Any object that blocks the light above the surface or frustrates the total internal reflection in the top substrate is detected by the receivers and interpreted, by a controller, as a touch event.
Despite the varied applications of infrared touchscreen in phones, e-readers, etc., currently existing infrared touchscreens are not compatible with flexible electronic displays. Further, other touch detection systems, such as resistive, surface capacitive, or projected capacitive systems, may be theoretically implemented in a flexible application, but such systems are impractical for real flexible product applications due a requirement to add additional layers to a display. Additional layers reduce the inherent flexibility of a display and may not allow a flexible electronic display to meet product requirements, not to mention that the additional layers reduce optical performance of a display.